Lazarus Johnson
Lazarus Willamette Johnson '''(1681-1779) was a Sednyanese Democratic politician who served as President of Sednyana from 1721 to 1733 and again for twenty-six minutes in 1739 until his assassination by a Gemor nationalist supported by a military conspiracy led by James Gamblain. Most famous for his doctrine of Imperial Democracy, Johnson's tenure saw the annexation of Gemoriyn in 1724 and the expansion of Sednyana's client state network into Doredor, Capulus and Tabora. Johnson was lambasted by his rivals as a populist demagogue and a war hawk and praised by his followers as '''Ole Laz, a president of remarkable strength and rhetoric who expanded Sednyana's influence to half a continent. Johnson was born into a poor family in Stony Hollow, East Kaya, near the Golden Mountains, and enlisted in the Sednyanese officer corps. Johnson spent six years as an officer including leading a regiment in the Capulusian War that fought in the Battle of Ayken, where he was shot three times but allegedly continued fighting. Upon returning to Sednyana, Johnson became a senator from East Kaya and soon made a name for himself in Congress with his theatrical rhetoric and his strong convictions, winning the Democratic Primary in 1720 and easily defeating John Francis Key in the election of 1721. Johnson and his vice president, Ellona governor Rich Richards, began their rule with a promise to bring Sednyanese Imperial Democracy to the continent, and soon did. As Sednyana signed restrictive trade deals that brought its allies closer to it and influenced their politics, Johnson responded to an invitation from the white elites of Gemoriyn to invade and depose nationalist dictator Slaigo Amdalis. Johnson invaded and, with the help of a popular movement, easily defeated Slaigo; however, he chose not to have his army leave, and instead Sednyana annexed the territory of Gemoriyn. As Johnson's power grew, opposition developed toward him both from the Liberalists, who saw him as a demogague and imperialist who threatened Sednyanese democracy, and from members of his own faction, who initially hoped to see Johnson crowned emperor and later, once he had declined their surreptitious offer, hoped to depose him in order to seize absolute power. These opposition factions - particularly the imperialist military - would mire Johnson's final term in scandal and conspiracy, as Johnson fought both to suppress knowledge of his own past illegal deeds and quell the rising power of the military that wished to have him killed; a scandal involving the murder of Stephen Walker, arranged by general James Gamblain to frame the president, cost Johnson the election of 1733 and forced him into exile in Correfuscidia. In 1739, Johnson returned to Sednyana and won the election in a landslide, but was shot in the head at his inauguration by a Gemor rebel. A massive investigation into his death, known as the Johnson Trials, would eventually reveal over the next thirteen years the extent of the military conspiracy against Johnson and the lengths that he had taken both to cement his own power and preserve Sednyanese democracy. A spectacle of unprecedented popularity and reach, the trials gutted Sednyana's military and political elite and ushered in the end of the Imperial Democratic era. Early Life f Military Career f Legislative Career President Johnson Exile, Return and Death Johnson's defeat in 1733 left him fearing for his life, and he fled the country illegally on a ship bound for Correfuscidia, where Lord Mayor Aphros Dioklas offered him asylum under the military protection of the King of Gloern i Vard, Carolus IV. Legacy Lazarus Johnson has one of the most complicated legacies among Sednyanese presidents.